Diesel price hike sparks Widespread anger
Jalandhar, September 14
For a country which has had a bit too much of the price rise tamasha, the government is clearly out to test the patience of its people with the recent Rs 5 per litre hike in diesel price.

Undertrial, who escaped from police custody, held
Jalandhar, September 14
An undertrial, who had escaped from the police custody, was today nabbed by the city police. A country-made pistol, one live cartridge and 300 gram of intoxicant powder was also seized from Salwinder Singh of Daryawal near Kapurthala. He had escaped from the custody of Jagraon police in 2010.

Patwari suspended for dereliction of duty
Jalandhar, September 14
Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti today suspended Avtar Singh, patwari of Khurla Kingra village, on the charges of dereliction of duty.
The Deputy Commissioner passed the orders during a review meeting of Revenue Department officials in the meeting hall of the Administrative Complex here today.

BJP demands cancellation of Cong Bhawan allotment by JIT
Jalandhar, September 14
Claiming that the District Congress Committee had blatantly violated the allotment deed of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust by illegally raising shops, district president of BJP Subhash Sood has demanded that the property at Rajinder Nagar be redeemed with the Trust.

Travel agent ‘dupes’ 51 villagers of
Rs 25 lakh
Jalandhar, September 14
A travel agent allegedly duped 51 villagers of Rs 25 lakh on the pretext of sending them abroad. He had issued them fake visas.
Majority of the complainants were from Fatehgarh Sahib. The victims had also held a protest outside the travel agency office on Thursday.

18 burglaries in two weeks
Jalandhar, September 14
There seems to be no end to the menace of burglaries in the district as in the past two weeks only, 18 burglaries have been reported in the district. In a majority of the incidents, the police has failed to trace the criminals.

Drug peddler nabbed, intoxicants seized
Jalandhar, September 14
The Police Division No. 3 today nabbed a drug peddler and recovered huge quantity of intoxicants from his possession.
The accused was identified as Gurpreet Singh, alias Gopi, resident of Shiv Nagar here. He was nabbed during a regular checking near Partap Bagh locality.

One held for murder
Jalandhar, September 14
The police has arrested a man in a year-old blind murder case. A woman, identified as Lajwanti, was found murdered at her residence in Partap Bagh on April 18, 2011. The miscreants had decamped with jewellery and cash from the house.

12 quintal of brass looted from factory
Jalandhar, September 14
Armed miscreants decamped with brass worth lakhs of rupees after making the factory labourers captive last night in the Focal Point area.
The police has registered a case under Section 380 and 457 of the IPC against the unidentified miscreants.

Guinea to join hands with
Jalandhar-based group
Jalandhar, September 14
Pinning hopes on India for its development, the Republic of Guinea, a West African country, has selected one of the leading educational groups of Punjab, St. Soldier Group of Institutions, for seeking its partnership in different projects being offered by the latter under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

Conference on computing sciences at LPU
Jalandhar, September 14
The School of Computer Applications of Lovely Professional University today opened a two-day conference on computing sciences.
The conference has been organised to mark
the birth centenary of the father of Modern Computer Sciences, Alan Turing.

Students of the DAV Institute of Technology who have got placements with Wipro Technologies pose for a photograph on the campus in Jalandhar on Friday. Photo: Sarabjit Singh

Rotary Club organises declamation contest
Jalandhar, September 14
Rotary Club, Jalandhar West, organised a declamation contest here in
which 10 colleges and schools participated. As many as 15 participants took part in the contest.

Jalandhar, September 14
For a country which has had a bit too much of the price rise tamasha, the government is clearly out to test the patience of its people with the recent Rs 5 per litre hike in diesel price.

The hike’s impact on the market is already visible. There is breast beating among homemakers and dharnas by men.

While the hike in diesel prices was just announced last evening, in less than 20 hours of the hike, the freight on vehicles ferrying vegetables to Punjab from the southern states was already increased by 20 paisa per kg.

Fuming transporters today burnt effigies of the Union Government and the Petroleum Minister.

Transporters said the decision would spell ruin for them.

Debt-ridden farmers, on the other hand, are asking for a hike in crop rates to compensate for the hike in diesel price.

There is uproar among housewives (about the brand new restriction to stick to six cylinders a year or pay hefty price for the rest) and they have even nicknamed that elusive seventh cylinder (for which they will have to pay more than Rs 700) the ‘seventh wonder’ of the Indian household.

And to rub salt on to the harried public’s wounds, trade pundits are already predicting a dramatic rise in commodities and food products in the days to come.

Talking to The Tribune, Gaurav Arora, an exporter, said, “Within hours of the hike in diesel price, transportation cost has already increased. The freight on vehicles ferrying goods from the south has increased by 20 paisa per kg. It was Rs 4.60 per kg yesterday and today it is Rs 4.80 per kg. And things will certainly not stop at this. Such dramatic price hikes always have a dramatic effect on the market. Freight has already gone up and there are all possibilities of the rise in prices of vegetables within days. For the middle class, the hike always spells doom. But who can fight the government.”

Gurjinder Singh Bhatija, a local farmer, said, “The sword of government decisions constantly hangs on our heads. This will prove extremely detrimental for farmers. Diesel is our lifeline. Our tractors run with diesel. Our agricultural implements run with diesel. We can’t even water our crops without diesel (generators). Unless the price of crops is raised, this recent price hike will prove fatal for farmers.”

Rupinder Singh, another farmer based in a Jalandhar village, says, “We are buried under the burden of loans. The loan limits will keep on increasing if fuel prices keep skyrocketing. Survival has become difficult for us.”

Neha Khanna, a homemaker, says, “It’s difficult to manage with just six cylinders a year. I can’t understand what the government’s thinking. Even among my friends, this was the topic of discussion all through the day. It is difficult to drag a cylinder out for 20 days in any home. Two months is too big a period. No housewife can make one cylinder work that long. It seems like we’ll have to go back to the rustic days of lighting a stove in the open.”

“On the other hand, the rise in diesel price is also going to hit the family budget. Other commodities, too, are already burning a hole in our pockets. The government is taking things too far,” says Neha.

Bharat Kakria, a lights’ showroom owner, said, “If there is a 5 per cent hike in diesel price, it translates to 10 per cent hike in commodities etc. in the market. Transportation is an integral part of our business. Since our goods are fragile, packaging and transportation comprise a major chunk of it. Every 15 days we grapple with such a decision. It is tiring and the man on the street is clearly running out on patience.”

Parvinder Dhaliwal, a transporter, said, “The price hike will ruin us. It a huge hike and the transportation industry which is already on its death bed, will receive another fatal blow.”

Up in arms

* Transporters said the decision would spell ruin for them.

*
Debt-ridden farmers, on the other hand, are asking for a hike in crop rates to compensate for the hike in diesel price.

*
There is uproar among housewives the ‘seventh wonder’ of the Indian household

*
Trade pundits predict a dramatic rise in prices of commodities and food products in the days to come

Speaking out

Transporters burn an effigy of the Prime Minister to protest against diesel price hike in Jalandhar on Friday. Tribune Photo: Malkiat Singh

Rollback demanded
Reacting sharply to the hike in diesel prices, city transporters demanded an immediate rollback in diesel prices. Headed by the leaders of the Mini Bus Punjab Association as well as All Punjab Truck Union, transporters today burnt effigies of the union government as well as the petroleum minister outside the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Jalandhar in protest against the diesel price hike. They said the central government’s anti-people policies would destroy the transport sector. Truck union chief Happy Sandhu also demanded that the Punjab Government decrease the VAT on diesel. Jarnail Singh Gardiwala, senior vice-president, Mini Bus Association, Punjab, said the hike in fuel prices by the government had dealt a cruel blow to those working in this sector.

Jalandhar, September 14
Suspecting murder of a teenaged girl, who was gang-raped and had been missing for the past two years, the police dug up the backyard of her residence at Adarsh Nagar today.

Following the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which constituted an investigation team seeking a report in this regard in October, a police party, headed by Addition Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Branch) Diljinder Singh Dhillon, reached the house in Adarsh Nagar and dug deep pits in the backyard.

The police got nothing from the exercise, which was carried out in the presence of a Naib Tehsildar.

A victim of gang-rape, the girl had disappeared from her home almost 10 days after the crime.

Dhillon said the exercise was a part of the investigation. “We suspected that the body might be buried in the backyard of the house where the girl’s parents had shifted after her rape. We cleared our doubts by digging the backyard of the house,” Dhillon adds, “It is a clue-less case and we are trying our best to trace leads”.

Police sources said the girl’s father Manmohan Narang had approached the court alleging police inaction in the case.

In July 2010, the teenager, a resident of the Basti Gujan locality, was allegedly gang-raped by three youths, identified as Deepak, Meeta and Neeraj.

Deepak and Neeraj were nabbed soon.

The victim’s family shifted to Adarsh Nagar from Basti Gujan and started living in a house owned by their relatives.

The girl disappeared from the house under mysterious circumstances and her father accused the trio of abducting his daughter. Meeta was also arrested thereafter and was put behind bars along with his two aides.

As the police failed to make any headway in the crime, all the accused could manage to get bail.

Jalandhar, September 14
An undertrial, who had escaped from the police custody, was today nabbed by the city police. A country-made pistol, one live cartridge and 300 gram of intoxicant powder was also seized from Salwinder Singh of Daryawal near Kapurthala. He had escaped from the custody of Jagraon police in 2010.

Bimal Kant Sharma, Inspector, Police Division No 8, said the police personnel had laid a naka at Sodal chowk for routine checking and on suspicion signaled a pedestrian to stop for inspection. Instead of stopping, he attempted to flee, but was nabbed by the police. During the preliminary investigation, the police found that the accused had a criminal past as several cases of loot, robbery and snatching were registered against him at Kapurthala, Jagroan, Moga and Jalandhar. The accused had also been declared a proclaimed offender by a court in as many as 13 criminal cases. — OC

Jalandhar, September 14
Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti today suspended Avtar Singh, patwari of Khurla Kingra village, on the charges of dereliction of duty.
The Deputy Commissioner passed the orders during a review meeting of Revenue Department officials in the meeting hall of the Administrative Complex here today.

The DC found that the patwari had failed to do jamabandi of the village for the year 2003-04 in time.

Passing the orders against the patwari, Priyank Bharti asked the officials of the Revenue Department to complete the work of pending jamabandis of their villages in time. He asked the officials of the Revenue Department to check the records of patwaris and kanungos in the next four-five months. — TNS

Jalandhar, September 14
Claiming that the District Congress Committee had blatantly violated the allotment deed of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust by illegally raising shops, district president of BJP Subhash Sood has demanded that the property at Rajinder Nagar be redeemed with the Trust.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on a petition filed by BJP worker and RTI activist Manit Malhotra had asked the chairman of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust-cum-Deputy Commissioner to check if any building plan for construction of shops along roadside had been sanctioned. The orders had been passed on August 23 wherein the DC had been given three months to do the needful.

The 1 kanal, 8 marla and 40 sq feet land was allotted to the DCC in 1973-74. Sood claimed that the committee had failed to pay installments then and the plot was re-allotted in 1980. He claimed that even till date the installments had not been paid and the allotment was illegal on yet another ground.

The BJP district president said 15 shops had been raised illegally and rented out to various tenants. As a result, the DCC was making an income of Rs 1 lakh a month. He further said the electricity connections could also not have been given to shopkeepers without the connivance of the then chairman of JIT.

Asked what the BJP would do with regards to a bank building that had come up in JIT land in KL Saigal Memorial against violations of the lease deed, he said, “I have not checked records. In case there are any illegalities, such a commercial building should also be razed”.

Illegal shops ‘raised’
The high court has asked the chairman of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust to check if any building plan for construction of shops along the roadside had been sanctioned

Jalandhar, September 14
A travel agent allegedly duped 51 villagers of Rs 25 lakh on the pretext of sending them abroad. He had issued them fake visas.
Majority of the complainants were from Fatehgarh Sahib. The victims had also held a protest outside the travel agency office on Thursday.

Acting on the complaint, the Adampur police had also raided the travel agency, H R Education Services, on Wednesday and rounded up two of its women employees for investigation.

Malkit Singh, SHO, Adampur police station said victims had approached him with a written complaint against the said travel agency for defrauding them of several lakhs of rupees. The victims had alleged that they had applied for foreign visas with the agency and after few months, agency owner Harjinder Singh Randhawa had handed over their passports to them with visas stamped on it.

“When we got our visas checked from the immigration office, we were stunned to know that visas were fake,” alleged Balbir, Amarjit and Gurpreet Singh, who became victims of the fraud.aThe Station House Officer said the investigation was going on. No case has been registered yet.

Jalandhar, September 14
There seems to be no end to the menace of burglaries in the district as in the past two weeks only, 18 burglaries have been reported in the district. In a majority of the incidents, the police has failed to trace the criminals.

As per sources, many of such incidents are not always reported to the police by residents as they want to avoid inconvenience at police stations.

In all incidents, miscreants have targeted houses, commercial establishments, showrooms and they have not even spared religious places.

In a few of the burglaries, the victims themselves traced the criminals and handed them over to the police.

In one of such burglaries on September 9 in Qazi Mandi locality, house owner Sunil Kumar himself traced burglars and handed them over to the police. Further investigation of the nabbed burglars had also led to the recovery of decamped gold ornaments worth several lakhs.

Similarly, Kewal Krishan, who owns an industry in New Prithvi Nagar, had himself nabbed burglars, who had stolen raw material from the factory a few days ago.

Police sources said on the night of September 13, burglars struck at three different houses in various localities of the city. In the first incident, burglars struck at a house in Ujala Nagar. House owner Ashok said burglars decamped with gold ornaments, two mobile phones and Rs 2,000 cash. The burglars also struck at another house in Ujala Nagar and decamped with valuables. The third burglary took place at a godown of a showroom from where ready-made garments worth thousands of rupees were stolen.

Interestingly, two women were found orchestrating the crime in the CCTV footage, but they have not been identified yet.

Residents have demanded intensive police patrolling, especially during night, to keep a tab on such incidents.

Jalandhar, September 14
The Police Division No. 3 today nabbed a drug peddler and recovered huge quantity of intoxicants from his possession.
The accused was identified as Gurpreet Singh, alias Gopi, resident of Shiv Nagar here. He was nabbed during a regular checking near Partap Bagh locality.

Police sources said on suspicion, police personnel signalled him to stop for checking. During the search of his belongings, the police recovered 1,500 intoxicant capsules and 400 intoxicant injections.

A case under Section 22-61-85 of the IPC has been registered against him.

Jalandhar, September 14
The police has arrested a man in a year-old blind murder case. A woman, identified as Lajwanti, was found murdered at her residence in Partap Bagh on April 18, 2011. The miscreants had decamped with jewellery and cash from the house.

The accused was identified as Vipan Kumar, a native of Uttar Pradesh and presently residing at Shivpuri locality in Ludhiana.

Two of his accomplices were identified as Deepak Kumar and Bharat Kumar. The police has already launched a manhunt to nab them.

Deceased’s son Surinder Kumar had found her dead when he had gone to meet his mother at the residence in Partap Bagh.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Sarabjit Singh said he also found the room ransacked. The killers took away her gold ornaments and Rs 75,000 cash. The deceased’s son had suspected the role of Dinesh Kumar and Deepak Kumar, who were employees at his shop, behind the murder, the DCP said.

During the investigation, the police found Dinesh’s brother Deepak, Vipan and Bharat Kumar behind the crime. A motorcycle used in the crime was also impounded by the police. Gold ornaments, which were looted, were also recovered. — OC

Jalandhar, September 14
Armed miscreants decamped with brass worth lakhs of rupees after making the factory labourers captive last night in the Focal Point area.
The police has registered a case under Section 380 and 457 of the IPC against the unidentified miscreants.

Sources said the incident occurred in the wee hours when about five armed miscreants entered the factory, RK Metal Works, and made a couple (labourers), residing in the factory, captive after tying their hands.

Ashwani Kumar, investigating officer, said miscreants had come on a four-wheeler and took about three hours to load the metal in the vehicle.

Vikran Sharma, factory owner, said miscreants decamped with 12 quintal of brass metal and other raw material from the factory.

Jalandhar, September 14
Pinning hopes on India for its development, the Republic of Guinea, a West African country, has selected one of the leading educational groups of Punjab, St. Soldier Group of Institutions, for seeking its partnership in different projects being offered by the latter under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

“The group, which also has a background of real estate development and hospitality, will enter into an understanding with the Republic of Guinea for setting up of necessary infrastructure for the growth and development in the fields of education, real estate, hospitality and tourism,” said Anil Chopra, chairman of the group.

AlaxandreCeCeLoua, an ambassador of Republic of Guinea in India, who was in the city to study the work culture here and take a stock of the projects of the group, said his country was a developing one and needed infrastructure.

CeceLoua said: “Republic of Guinea is rich in natural resources like bauxite, gold and diamond. We were looking for natural partner from India who can contribute in the overall social development in our country through educational institutes, real estate, hospitality and tourism on the PPP mode”.

“Moreover, we are interested in setting up of schools for primary and secondary education and higher educational institutes of world-class standard to impart technical and non-technical education, which will help us generate employment and promote entrepreneurship,” he added.

Jalandhar, September 14
The School of Computer Applications of Lovely Professional University today opened a two-day conference on computing sciences.

The conference has been organised to mark
the birth centenary of the father of Modern Computer Sciences, Alan Turing.

Eminent scientists and academicians from IOWA State University, IBM Research Labs, Pentagram Research Centre and reputed Indian universities participated in the conference.

There are 90 speakers for the conference who are delving on topics like security and privacy, data engineering, pattern recognition and artificial intelligence, mathematical theory of computability, Internet and services computing and hardware systems.

94 students get placements

As many as 94 students of the DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology have been selected by Wipro Technologies in a campus placement drive held on the campus.

All selected students have been asked to join the company in July, 2013. The selected students include 39 from Electronics and Communication Engineering, 23 from Computer Science and Engineering, 16 from Information Technology, four from Electrical Engineering, eight from Mechanical Engineering, one from Civil Engineering and three from MCA.

Principal Dr AL Sangal has congratulated the students on their placements.

School Notes
Rotary Club organises declamation contest
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 14
Rotary Club, Jalandhar West, organised a declamation contest here in
which 10 colleges and schools participated. As many as 15 participants took part in the contest.

Students of HMV College won the overall Trophy. Sangya of HMV College, Jalandhar, stood first, Sonia of HMV College, Jalandhar, came second, while Karitka of Layallpur Khalsa College was declared third in the
contest.

A colouring contest was organised for the Pre-Primary wing of DIPS School, Urban Estate-I.

Students were given different sets of drawings to colour. In the nursery section, Gurnoor Kaur, Gurleen Kaur and Neha performed superbly, while in KG-B and Prep-Section, Devanshree, Amani and Harman Virk won appreciation. Director Lakhwinder Kaur gave away certificates to the winners.